Transfering old 8mm film onto disk

you can ebay a projector for cheaper than getting them transfferred. You would then point your digital camera at the wall where the the projector is projecting and record the out put. It won't be a perfect frame // frame transfer, but it'll suffice.

Or have a shop do it. You should be able to look at the filmstrips (I'm assuming they're developed) by holding them up to the light to determine what they are and decide whether or not you want that reel converted.

You'll have to telecine them, which is transferring the film to DVD or other digital formats. You can send them in to a number of companies and have them developed and put on to DVD. If they're already developed, you don't have to go to the trouble of doing that.

I think there are units that have a screen and you feed the film into them and it shows what is on it. But unless they are developed, you can't do that.

Lastly, you could spend some money (not too much, you can find one for $20 or so) and get a projector, and with another DV cam, film the projection. It's cheap way of getting into a digital format.

telecine is the process I described, they can then be transfered to any format you choose. The difference between my style telecine and the pro style is that they will actually make the framerates match where mine will jsut get it inthere even though it may not be frame accurate... or the highest quality. But if you want quality, you pay for it.

Another thought is that you can project the frames one at a time and take a picture with a DSLR, then combine them in the computer as an image sequence... this would be extrememly time consuming, but accurate and high resolution.

Get one of these things: Linkage

...or for the same amount, an actual projector. The viewer will probably be faster to speed through the rolls, though it's hand-cranked.

When you've found the actual reels you need (out of your nice collection), for cheap relatively transfer take it to Ritz Camera (or pretty much any camera shop, or store with photo-service) and check out their prices for Super-8 transfer to DVD. (I don't know if they do regular 8mm film. Never checked) The quality will be okay. Not best, but okay.

If you need way better quality transfer, you can send the rolls to a lab (there's lots of 'em... I use Yale Film & Video, myself) where they can transfer on a lovely high-priced machine onto a mini-DV tape (or other media). It will cost a fair bit more, I think... they'll have to clean all the rolls, prep 'em for rolling through, actual cost of the time usage, etc. But the end result will be lovely.

I've also had film transferred on this thing: DV8 Sniper. (A buddy of mine has one). The quality came out pretty grainy and underlit... but it was one of my first things shot on film, too, so maybe my source material was just crappy. Many lo-cost transfer peeps use this kind of system or similar. If the place you have your film transferred at wants to use this, I'd not be so keen on it.

But... let's go back to something you mentioned earlier.

I would like to incorporate some of it into a film.

Click to expand...

That would be something to consider, in itself, before deciding how you're going to transfer it. Why you considering to a DVD?

If you need to edit it, you'd need to rip out the video file anyway. If you just need it to have on DVD to be playing on a TV in the background (or for use in a video projector), that's one thing. Trying to do mix/match footages of different qualities, resolutions and aspect ratios into actual cuts in a timeline is a bit different.

Anyways, this is the part I'd like to know more about. Exactly how is the S8 footage going to be incorporated?

(My last film used a mix of Super-8, HDV & frame-by-frame animation. All shot at different aspect ratios and fps. Real bear to deal with).

I projected my old 8mm footage onto a white poster board on the wall with a projector I picked up at a thrift shop for $5. Projectors are everywhere. Make sure you test it though, a bulb can be costly & difficult to find. I used a DVX 100a to record & the resulting footage was very close to the original. At least I'm happy with it. Best wishes.

I looked on ebay and actually found a good deal, these usually cost more.
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